Today, for the first time in a long time, I listened to Billy Joel's 1977 album "The Stranger" (which I listened to a lot in the late 70s; my second concert was Billy Joel) to check out the lyrics. With setting, characterization, props, and story, "Movin’ Out" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" create worlds. The superb first stanza of "The Stranger" turns "a face that we hide away forever" into a mask made of satin, steel, silk, or leather, but the rest of the song’s variations on that opening stanza lose that wonderful physicality. In contrast, there is no world but only a void in the rest of the songs. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 14 May 2026)